Osprey, Yellow Wagtails, Whimbrel and Marsh Harrier still

Great to see my third Osprey of the spring this morning.  As usual the gulls first alerted me to its presence, just before 09:40 over the lower Axe Estuary...

Don't look too closely at this photo - it is horribly fuzzy!

 

It flew slowly down the Estuary, and I last saw it over Axmouth harbour heading off west, presumably it then followed the coast.  I guess there is a good chance it had roosted on or near the Axe overnight.

One of the birds it flushed was my long overdue first Whimbrel of the year, which had spent the previous half an hour feeding on the Estuary by Axmouth bridge...

An equally bad photo

 

I have a mini-update for Saturday too.  I only had an hour out mid to late morning, but I spent the whole time going through the large numbers of hirundines feeding low in the valley.  Although we have had good numbers of Sand Martins around for several weeks now, numbers of Swallows and House Martins have been really low, with not even any good passage days.  So the sight of 700-800 hirundines feeding low over the fields and river at Colyford Marsh, Bridge Marsh, and up the Axe Valley north of the A3052 was simple brilliant!  My estimations were minimums of 400 Sand Martins, 300 Swallows and 40 House Martins.  What was exciting is that every now and then I would notice new birds arriving from the south, so it really felt like there was always a chance of something better (possibly with a red-rump!?) joining the feeding frenzy.

Sadly the hirundine species count remained at three for the morning, but a lovely highlight were two stunning male Yellow Wagtails loitering with the hirundines feeding just north of the A3052 opposite Bridge Marsh.  Most the time I was just enjoying flight views of them, as they'd sporadically fly around with the Swallows and Martins before dropping back down into the long grass.  However I eventually saw both well on the deck, one walking about in an area of shorter grass on the river bank whilst the other bird sat up for a few minutes on a small hedge...

Not a great post for photo quality I am afraid!

 

I've said it already this year in my post with the not quite blue-headed Yellow Wagtail in March, but grounded spring Yellow Wags are like gold dust here. So to see two more males was such a treat!  Top birds they are.

One of the Marsh Harriers is still around, I see it pretty much every time I look over Colyford Marsh...

Great to have one lingering

Cannot really believe it is already 20th April.  Although there's been some great spring birding this year, day to day I am not seeing all that much - especially in any numbers.  Hopefully this picks up soon because when we head into May I am well aware it means we are coming towards the end of the main period of spring migration.  I am not ready for spring 2025 to be done just yet.